Chicago -
By Roger Wallenstein
Forgive me for being foolish or overly optimistic, but I, along with many Sox fans, have to believe that the White Sox’s chances of signing Manny Machado are increasing by the hour.
With reports over the weekend that the Sox are offering $230 million over eight years, this is getting serious.
Posted on January 14, 2019
By Roger Wallenstein
As a kid my heroes were Fox, Aparicio and Miñoso. For my two sons, it was Harold. As in Baines, who was surprisingly voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday by the 16 members of Today’s Game Era Committee, a group that was one of three begotten when the Veterans Committee was dissolved in 2010.
Twelve votes are required from committee members for admission to the Hall, and Harold garnered just that many. Cub reliever Lee Smith justifiably was a unanimous choice.
One can assume that Harold’s candidacy was bolstered by two committee members, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Tony LaRussa, Baines’ manager for the first seven seasons of his 22-year career. But, c’mon people, as citizens of Chicago, what’s the big deal? Besides, this is more transparency than we usually get.
Posted on December 10, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
Year Two of The Rebuild
Is now part of history.
Rickey’s boys show some promise,
But the future’s a mystery
We saw some improvement
Which pleases the bosses
The Sox have youth and enthusiasm
Along with a whopping 100 losses.
The mistakes were plentiful.
The misplays were telling.
It’s a learning experience.
That’s what they’ve been selling.
Posted on September 30, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
The kid – well, maybe not a kid, but a twenty- or thirty-something – said his name was Comiskey, and I’ll be damned if, without any encouragement, he produced his driver’s license to prove the veracity of his claim.
“You the grandson of Chuck Comiskey?” I asked, referring to the last of the long line of the family that owned the White Sox from 1900 until 1959.
“No, I’m his great, great, great nephew,” came the robust reply, making me think he was going back to the original Comiskey, Charles A., otherwise known as the Old Roman.
No matter because all the fans, including more than a few of the North Side variety, sitting around us behind home plate in the upper deck at The Grate on Friday afternoon took notice when the guy unfurled the large “L” banner while the athletes from both sides of town were preparing for the first pitch in what was to become an enticing 10-4 White Sox triumph.
Posted on September 24, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
The close of the Hawk Harrelson Era has been neither sudden nor precipitous. It has been more like a leaky faucet, laboriously dripping drop-by-drop for the past two seasons since the team announced that 2018 would complete his 35-year tenure calling Sox games.
Last season, as he was winding down, he covered only road games. His duties this year have been confined to Sundays at home. He’ll describe the three-game series this weekend against the Cubs, and that will be it.
The elongated swan song has been punctuated this month with Hawk Day on September 2nd followed by an hour-long documentary, Hawk, that aired for the first time last Thursday on NBC Sports Chicago, the local network partly owned by the White Sox.
Whereas Frank Thomas was summarily dismissed in 2005, Ozzie Guillen was axed in 2011, and the team cast away Mark Buehrle – Harrelson calls Buehrle his all-time favorite Sox player – to free agency in 2011 at the age of 32, Harrelson’s departure has been a lovefest dictated primarily by Hawk himself.
Posted on September 17, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
Why so glum, Sox fans? The ballclub to which we swear allegiance has won the World Series exactly once in the past 101 years. If you were born after 2012, you’ve never experienced a .500 season, which could be a reason why children being raised in a White Sox household don’t like baseball. The greatest hitter in team history, Joe Jackson with his .356 lifetime average, will never be in the Hall of Fame.
On the other side of town, “Lovable Losers” was bandied about until a few years ago. Never would a team created within smelling distance of the Union Stockyards be tagged with such a defeatist attitude. With its blue-collar reputation playing in cavernous Comiskey Park, Sox fans have been strong, resilient and realistic. Comiskey Park. Wanna feel better? Write those two words side-by-side. Better yet, say them out loud.
So Michael Kopech can’t pitch next season. Big deal!
Posted on September 10, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
You’re always looking for that unexpected gem on a rebuilding ballclub, a guy no one ever heard of, a ballplayer devoid of the hype surrounding athletes with names like Jimenez, Kopech and Moncada. General managers’ lives are filled with plots, schemes and strategies aimed at building a system that will spit out players who will lead the franchise to the promised land called post-season play.
Every now and then a bit of luck plays a part such as the case of Daniel Palka.
Posted on September 3, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
Perhaps we should be accustomed to the discovery of past transgressions, commonly of the social media variety, like the one last week involving White Sox hotshot pitcher Michael Kopech.
There are many among us involved in more pressing matters than noticing an improving ballclub but one that still remains 28 games under .500. There are family and friends that require our attention. In the local sporting world, the absence of Mitch Trubisky and the Bears offense in the penultimate game of their NFL preseason furrowed the brows of many fans.
Nevertheless, after being excused from further obligations at the minor league level, Kopech’s grand entrance last Tuesday at The Grate attracted more attention on the South Side than witnessed all season.
Posted on August 27, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
The tweets began in the midst of a disastrous second inning for Reynaldo Lopez.
“The Sox are calling up Michael Kopech,” declared the woman sitting behind us. Being a non-tweeter, I immediately turned around in my seat to ask where she heard that news. “A friend of mine,” she said.
“Any announcement from the ballclub?” I asked.
“Wait a minute,” she responded, “Here’s a tweet from [NBC Sports Chicago’s] Chuck Garfien,” and the Twitter world lit up.
Posted on August 20, 2018
By Roger Wallenstein
“While we can look at a stat line or you can look at a box score and say, ‘This guy looks like he’s doing well, looks like he’s ready,’ our checklist that we want these guys to answer is a little more lengthy than that. And not until they’ve answered all those questions we have for them at the minor league level will we promote them. They know what’s on the list. I’m not going to sit here and tell you things our players can’t do.”
So spoke White Sox general manager Rick Hahn a couple weeks ago when the media applied gentle pressure about the likelihood of top prospects Eloy Jimenez and Michael Kopech arriving soon on the South Side for their major league debuts.
You could excuse Sox fans a week ago for heightened pulses and eager anticipation when Leury Garcia pulled a hamstring and went on the DL. The Yankees were coming to town for a Monday-Wednesday three-game set, which they wound up sweeping. ESPN was televising Monday’s game even though the New Yorkers were on a five-game losing streak including four to the front-running Red Sox to extinguish any hope the Yanks had of overtaking the Boston group. Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ behemoth slugger, wasn’t even going to play because of a chip fracture in his right wrist.
What merited Monday’s game to be nationally televised? Was this to be Eloy Jimenez’s introduction not only to Sox fans but to fans across the country? Did ESPN possess some secret knowledge about Hahn’s master plan?
Posted on August 13, 2018
